Pro Football Hall of Fame: Ex-49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo, DL Charles Haley will have to wait

NEW ORLEANS -- It was a rough day for the Bay Area NFL teams on Saturday, as former 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo and defensive lineman Charles Haley, and Raiders all-time receiving leader Tim Brown failed to get elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Only Larry Allen, who spent his final two seasons with the 49ers, and Warren Sapp, who finished his career with the Raiders, seven men picked for induction into the 2013 class after voting Saturday by the 46 members of the Hall of Fame selection committee.

The announcement was made at media headquarters in New Orleans, just down the road from the site of Sunday's Super Bowl XLVII. The induction ceremony will be held in Canton, Ohio on Aug. 3 as part of the hall's 50-year anniversary.

DeBartolo owned the 49ers from 1977 to 2000, a time during which San Francisco became the first team to win five Super Bowl titles. Under his tenure, the 49ers hired Bill Walsh as head coach, drafted Joe Montana and created a culture remembered for its first-class treatment of players and coaches.

"There was edge in the environment of playing for Mr. DeBartolo,'' former 49ers safety Ronnie Lott, also a Hall of Famer, recalled earlier this week. "He created edges that were unique to the game and unique to sports."

DeBartolo's teams posted the best winning percentage in the NFL in both the decades of the 1980s and 1990s. Aside from the titles, DeBartolo was a significant figure on the league's realignment and expansion committees.

Haley spent 12 seasons in the NFL, including two stints with the 49ers. The only player to win five Super Bowl titles, Haley collected his first two rings with the 49ers (XXIII and XXXIV) before winning three more during his first four seasons with the Dallas Cowboys.

Drafted in the fourth round in 1986, Haley was an immediate terror to quarterbacks, racking up 12 sacks as a rookie linebacker. He had four double-digit sack totals with the 49ers, including a league-leading 16 in 1990.

But he was temperamental and difficult to handle, clashing with teammates and coaches alike. The 49ers finally tired of his antics and traded him to the Cowboys.

"I just can't believe we traded him to Dallas,'' former 49ers teammate Jerry Rice recalled this week. "I'm like, 'Why would you trade him to Dallas?' I think he was able to go on and win two or three more Super Bowls. Come on, man!"

Haley's career appeared over when he suffered a serious back injury in 1996. He retired after undergoing surgery. But after a two-year-layoff, Haley re-signed with the 49ers as a back-up defensive end and played two playoff games in 1998. He added three more sacks in 1999 before calling it a career.

His final totals: 169 games, 100.5 sacks and two Defensive Player of the Year awards (1990 and 1994).

Brown spent all but one of his 17 career seasons in a Raiders uniform and departed in 2003 as the team's all-time leader in every major receiving category. He ranks fifth in NFL history in catches (1,095), fifth in receiving yards (14,934) and fifth in all-purpose yards (19,679).

The then-Los Angeles Raiders drafted Brown out of Notre Dame in the 1988 draft. He went on to make nine Pro Bowls. Beyond his receiving skills, he was also a dynamic return man, leading the NFL in kick return yardage in 1988 and in punt-return yardage in 1994.

Of thos elected, Allen played his first 12 seasons in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys before spending his final two seasons (2006-07) with the 49ers. He made 11 Pro Bowls, including each of his seasons in San Francisco.

Legendary for his strength, the 6-foot-3, 325-pounder was one of the NFL's biggest road blocks for opposing defenders. It was Allen who provided a welcome-to-the-NFL moment for a 49ers rookie linebacker named Patrick Willis in 2006.

"I'll never forget my first practice,'' Willis recalled this week. "Frank Gore ran the sweep, and Larry Allen was coming off the block, and I thought I could just make a move on him and go around him. That didn't happen. I felt like Larry Allen pushed me from one side of the field to the next."

Drafted out of Division II Sonoma State in 1994, Allen spent his second season helping to pave the way for Emmitt Smith's team-record 1,773-yard season. That was the first of Allen's second consecutive Pro Bowl seasons.

Sapp spent 13 seasons in the NFL, including his final four seasons with Oakland. The defensive tackle played from 2004-07 with the Raiders, adding 17 sacks to his career total of 96.5.

Drafted out of the University of Miami with the 12th overall pick by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1995, the defensive tackle went on to make seven Pro Bowls. He was part of Tampa Bay's Super Bowl XXXVII team in 2002.

Sapp was the NFL's defensive player of the year in 1999 when he helped the Buccaneers win their first division title in 18 years.